Nokia Unveils Its First Windows Phones

After months of secrecy (almost) and planning, Nokia has finally unveiled its first batch of smartphones that run on Windows, and one of them looks almost exactly like old Nokia N9. The Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 represent Nokia's big bet on Microsoft's mobile operating system to recapture marketshare from competing device makers like HTC and Apple.

The Lumia 800, with its its single-piece, injection moulded polycarbonate shell bears a striking resemblance to the N9, released earlier this year as Nokia's first and last phone to run on the open-sourced OS Meego.

The key difference of course is that the Lumia 800 runs on the Windows Phone interface, and as far as Nokia is concerned, it is the best to do so. "Lumia is the first real Windows Phone made by anyone," Nokia's Chief Executive Stephen Elop told an audience of developers and industry analysts at the annual Nokia World in London this morning.

He then invited Kevin Shields, a former Microsoft executive who now leads Nokia's product development for smartphones, to demo the phone. Shields gave an at-times dramatic presentation, at one point bellowing that the Lumia 800 looked "Awesome!"

He ran through the Lumia 800's features including a 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, high-definition video, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage allowing users to store images and music. Nokia says the estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be roughly 420 euros ($585). Like the N9, the Lumia 800 will come in three colors -- black, cyan and magenta -- and feature a matt finish.

The Nokia N9

Shields also demonstrated a close integration with Facebook, including the ability to take a picture with the phone and tag people directly via its operating system.

The Lumia 710 is cheaper at roughly 270 euros but the real interest is in the Lumia 800. PocketLint spent some time trying out the Lumia 800 and said it stood out against other Windows Phone 7 devices. "It makes the HTC Radar look boring, and gives the HTC Titan (with its poor screen resolution) a good run for its money in performance too."

Nokia's Elop said in his keynote presentation that Nokia had had some "difficult moments, but in the last few months we started deliver some early results. He added: “Earlier this year we recognized the need to shift our strategy so we could deliver even better mobile experiences. We’ve had some difficult moments, but in the last few months we started deliver some early results.”

Shares of Nokia were up b 1.3% in Helsinki following the announcement.